A Rose with Thorns
by sas479
Summary: The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. Scorpius knew this to be achingly true. Scorpius/Rose one-shot. Complete. CC Compliant.


**A/N: It's taken me a while to adjust to the Scorpius/Rose dynamic in Cursed Child and decide if I wanted to write anything based off of it. I've read it about a dozen times since it was released and honestly I think the play is a bit of a hot mess. Granted, there's something to be said for reading a script when you need to be there and experience it live- but overall in my opinion, a lot of the characters read as one dimensional and the plot left a lot to be desired. Despite my personal issues with it, I'm going to grudgingly accept it as cannon. So here ya go- a Rose/Scorpius one-shot based off CC. I included a bit of dialogue from pages 50-51 and from 301-302 which I put in italics and belongs to Jack Thorne/Jack Tiffany/JKR.**

"I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be."  
—Charles Dickens, _Great Expectations_

 **4th Year**

 _"Just leave me alone, Rose."_ Scorpius overheard Albus mutter to his cousin in a flat, irritated tone as he slid the door to their usual compartment open. The moment Scorpius heard Rose's name, his stomach suddenly felt as though Chocolate Frogs were jumping inside of him and he couldn't stop the surge of adrenaline as she trailed after Albus and entered the compartment.

 _"Albus!"_ He greeted his best friend. _"Oh hello, Rose, what do you smell of?"_ He blurted out. He didn't know what caused it, but when Rose Granger-Weasley was anywhere near him, his brain lost all ability to think before speaking.

 _"What do I smell of?"_ She arched her eyebrows and glanced at him scornfully.

She had taken it as an insult. _"No, I meant it as a nice thing, you smell like a mixture of fresh flowers and fresh-bread."_ And of dewy grass and Pepper Imps and fresh parchment and if rainbows and sunshine had a smell, she smelled like that too. His thoughts trailed off as he looked at her eagerly. This was the most they had spoken since first year and he was not going to squander his time with her.

But she acted as if he hadn't spoken at all and continued her conversation with her cousin. _"Albus, I'm here, okay? If you need me."_

 _"I mean, nice bread, good bread, bread... What's wrong with bread?"_ He babbled. She gave one last pleading glance at Albus before rolling her eyes at Scorpius.

 _"What's wrong with bread!"_ She repeated indignantly and left the compartment shaking her head.

It was almost as disastrous as the first conversation they ever had on the train during their first year. However, it was the first time she had spoken to him in over two years, and any kind of interaction he had with her he would gladly accept. A quote popped into his head, something he had read by the muggle Elie Wiesel the week prior. 'The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference,' he had said. Scorpius knew this to be achingly true.

He was in love with her, but always his opposite, Rose was utterly indifferent towards him. She had told him the day they met that she thought the rumors about his parentage were probably rubbish, he had a nose after all. And so for the first few months of school, he was hopeful that she may befriend him as quickly as Albus had. As months passed, she showed no signs of wanting to be friends, but he never gave up hope. She did not actively hate him as most students did. Rose didn't stare or shout or write "son of Voldemort" on his trunk, but she did not bother to stop the students who did either.

Most of the time she seemed completely oblivious that he even existed. He thought back to all of the times when she would come to talk to Albus and her eyes would slide over him as if he were under an invisibility cloak. If she did happen to glance his way, she treated him the way people who are not animal lovers treat the pets of their friends, or as if he were a piece of gum on the bottom of her shoe that she never bothered to pluck off. He was just sort of there in the background, an easily ignored nuisance.

She never bothered to notice him, but he certainly noticed her.

She was fierce. Intense, bold, and determined, she was a force to be reckoned with. A superb chaser, youngest winner of England's national Wizard's Chess tournament, and beloved by all of her professors and friends, Rose Granger-Weasley was easily the brightest witch of her age.

She was as talented as her mother, but as close-minded as her father. She had a terrible temper and none of the compassion or sympathy that her mother exuded. Her confidence bordered on arrogance. Albus had told him about how Rose claimed everyone would want to be friends with them, that she and Albus could pick from anyone they wanted in first year. Rose put too much pressure on herself to be friends only with the 'right type of people' and was often cold and callous to those she did not know well. Her father's prejudice against the Slytherins lived on through her dislike, even her relationship with her closest cousin became extremely strained when Albus had been sorted into the house.

Despite all of this, Scorpius was, against all logic and discouragement from Albus, utterly and irrevocably in love with her. A Rose was a Rose after all, and roses had thorns.

* * *

An utter fantasist, that's what Albus had called him. He supposed that was a fair assessment. Logic dictated that Rose would never agree to go out with him and that he should quit trying. Ever the optimist, however, he never gave up hope. He had been in a reality where she ceased to exist, and he realized that a world without Rose was not a world worth living in.

As he and Albus slipped out of the empty classroom they had been talking in, Rose passed them on the stairs. Apparently Scorpius was no longer invisible to her, and Rose looked at them both and focused on Scorpius. As it always did, his stomach suddenly did strange flips and his eyes widened cartoonishly. He glanced at Albus who was also at a loss for words.

" _Hi_." She said to beak the silence. " _This is only going to be weird if you let it be weird_ ," she warned Scorpius, continuing to stare at him.

 _"Received and entirely understood,"_ he assured her.

 _"Okay. 'Scorpion King'"_ she teased. The corners of her mouth twitched upwards. Was Rose Granger-Weasley... smiling? At him?

He couldn't deny the fact that up until that moment, all of their previous conversations had been nothing short of disastrous. This was the first time they had spoken that didn't end with her rolling her eyes in disdain or kicking him in the shins. She was even smiling at him for Dumbledore's sake. This was undeniable proof that she was definitely melting. Rose might take years to persuade, he knew, but her thorny exterior would smooth eventually. He had time on his side.


End file.
